New 911 Is Mid-Engined Shock!

Only joking.

This is the back of the defiantly rear engined new Porsche 911. For once, it actually is new. We have become used to additional variants of the 997 appearing seemingly every few weeks but this one really is pretty much all-new. The Carrera S pictured above has a 400bhp version of the 3.8 litre, water-cooled flat six which the 997 has been using until now. It’s a sign of how much of a tradition the 911 is that I felt I had to say that the engine is water-cooled. The vanilla Carrera uses a new downsized 3.4 litre flat six. That one’s water-cooled too. You may have been wondering. There is a new seven speed gearbox and the option of a PDK. That bears saying again. The new manual gearbox has seven forward ratios. Seven.

The wheels are further apart. The wheelbase is 100mm longer than the 997’s and front track is wider. Front and rear overhangs are shorter so the overall footprint isn’t much changed. It’s lower as well. The new chassis and body incorporate more aluminium than before and weigh up to 45kg less than before. There are various electronic bits and bobs with impressive-sounding initials and acronyms controlling the suspension.

The styling is of course an evolution of the current and really rather beautiful one. It looks like a 997 that’s spent a little too long in a soap dish. The rear is a little baroque around the badging for my taste. I’m sure that we’ll all become used to the way this one looks when it becomes part of our lives but I can’t help thinking that the 997, especially in facelifted Gen II spec going to be seen as one of the all-time greats. This one is one we’ll get used to, eventually.

Anyway, prices start at a smidge under £71,500 for the 911 Carrera. The S costs from £81,242. Equipment levels are higher than before. Sat nav is now standard, for example. The order book is open now and deliveries start in December. There will be some very happy bankers come Christmas. The rest of us will be just as happy with their trade-ins.